The Vampire Detective 2 – Second Grace
Chapter Three
Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
---
The rest of that day and the next dragged on with all the speed of a crippled snail, as Shinichi had wisely chosen not to go back to school until things had calmed down at least a little. Following up on Hakuba's promise, and their own unanimous decision not to let Shinichi be alone for his own good, he had hardly any time without some sort of visitor to the Kudo household, even if they didn't know anything about what was going on, or what he was, or if they were simply an acquaintance of sorts that he had spoken barely a full sentence to while in school. It was disconcerting and comforting at the same time.
Hattori had dropped by for a few hours at one point, even though Shinichi knew that he would have had to cut school himself to do so. That one time, Kazuha hadn't been with him. Hattori said that she had preferred to keep her grades the way they were, and that not everyone had a picture-perfect memory even if the rest of their brain wasn't as useful.
He had almost laughed at that.
Right before he had left, Hattori had promised two things – to come back when he could, and to help catch the guy that had done it.
Shinichi had only smiled weakly and nodded. Hattori had looked at him weirdly.
Kaito had apparently chosen to bunk off school each day so far, instead sleeping over at either hakase's or some spare room of the Kudo house itself, whether Shinichi agreed or not.
It was only on the afternoon of the second day that he actually sought the thief out only to find him denned out in the library, papers strewn everywhere in a way that would have had Kudo Yuusaku pulling his hair out – especially if it was his own mess – and definitely had Shinichi groaning and feeling like a headache of the normal variety was coming on. Until, that was, he took a closer look and found to his disbelief that Kaito had been planning a heist for that week, perhaps only a few days hence, that had been postponed. While this may have lightened his mood a few months ago, now that he knew the reason behind the thefts, he couldn't help but feel both guilty and grateful at the same time.
He did, after all, owe Kuroba a lot. Not to mention twice over, once for two weeks ago . . . and another for not having to tell everyone at once his entire confession. Even if he did believe that part of the reason Kaito was there was just as much to gain as much more information about what had happened as was possible, without seeming to threaten.
And somehow, even though he was Kuroba Kaito and therefore the epitome of chaos incarnate, he also had the control to be as unobtrusive as it was possible to be while always being only a few feet away.
Ran came over every day, and made dinner for the two boys every other day. She always came with news of what was going on at school, where the rumours were at, what her father had been up to since Shinichi had been away and – most importantly, yet always for some reason left until last – the most up to date findings on the case. She had been able to tell them all that Shinichi had been cleared of being a suspect later on the very day that he had given in his statement. Though that was, Shinichi privately thought, just as much because of his reputation than because of the evidence found.
Hakuba Saguru, however, did not agree with him on that point. The British detective had been keeping in contact with him via email and appraising him of personal developments into the case, some of which included the fact that there was evidence somewhere, specifically Hakuba's private computer, that even the vampire Kudo Shinichi had not done the crime – in fact, he had somehow managed to wrangle two blood samples off of the coroner. One was of blood taken via syringe from an area of the victim's body which was nowhere near the neck, and the other was from the area specific to the place around which the victim had been bitten. Also taken were swabs of the immediate area in the hope that there might have still been some saliva on the skin.
It was unlikely that it would get any hits on a state system, but it was something. Something that had worked for them so far.
The Shounen Tantei had dropped by a couple of times, too. Apparently, they had still been helping the police with their cases, even if one Edogawa Conan was not still with them and leading them all the way through. Ai was still there, after all, and so was Hakase. He found himself strangely drawn to the group, the old familiarity of it.
Yet at the same time he had also been lucky to have the magician never too far away, ready and willing to act as a distraction at a moment's notice. Which, as it happened, became pretty much all the time – such as when Shinichi got too nervous for any reason, or tired, or if the kids were asking too many questions hitting a little too close to home.
Sometimes, he wondered if he had somehow taught them too well. Then he thought that he'd prefer too well taught to not taught at all. The world was a dangerous place. Especially with him in it.
And whenever he tried to remember the by now infamous event. . . his world turned blue.
---
Painted red nails tapped a staccato onto the school desk their owner sat at, every so often pausing and sometimes joined by a second hand that accompanied with a melody, disconcerting those nearby with the strange quality of the finger-tapped music.
Koizumi Akako was not, at this point in time, calm or content in any way. In fact, she was puzzled, frustrated, perturbed and annoyed. It was the fifth day running in which Kuroba Kaito-kun had not attended class.
It was also the day on which she had foreseen a heist note appearing in the papers, yet the face of the Kid had also been mysteriously missing from publicity. Which did not say very much at all, except that whatever had Kuroba-kun preoccupied, occupied all of his time, not just the daylight hours of his life.
Add all of this to the fact that the very last time he had been seen had been just before he had left to bail Kudo-san out again and it could only mean that the vampiric detective was detaining the Kaitou once again. That Kuroba-kun had still been in contact via phone, email and classwork meant at least that the magician was in one piece.
Mostly ignoring the teacher, she sighed with irritation and added an iota to her pout.
It had to be that newly-fledged vampire's fault. Everything seemed to be, nowadays. Before, it had just been her, Kuroba-kun, Aoko-kun and maybe Saguru-chan as a side-distraction. Now, of course, it was Kudo Shinichi this and Kudo Shinichi that. Kudo Shinichi who had stolen her Kaitou away. Kudo Shinichi who had caused her maid- friend, Aoko-kun, to be bad tempered to everyone and especially Kaito because Kuroba-kun was gone. Kudo Shinichi who had deprived her of one of her favourite game-toys, when his predicament had caused one Hakuba Saguru to be so fixated on said case that he barely reacted any more. And the stiff British detective did have such good reactions, most of the time...
Yet they had been taken away from her. The Kuroba-kun lookalike might be nice to look at sometimes – there was, after all, something attractive about those sharp yet smooth vampiric lines to the face, and coming from a witch who specialised in the magic of glamour that was quite the racial compliment – but enough did sometimes get to be enough. They had been her people first.
Kudo Shinichi would have to be. . . dealt with.
Unlike most of the other times when she had had to deal with someone for any reason, this time she had what could almost be described as a slight grimace on her preternaturally beautiful face.
Dealing with vampires – especially the older ones – tended to be tedious, as a general rule. And when they weren't tedious, they tended to be impossible to deal with even so, affecting that effortless air of mystery of theirs. Luckily, Kudo had not yet received that particular trait. Hopefully, he wouldn't grow into it.
The school bell rang, and as always the entire male population of the class watched as she rose from her seat, like a queen rising from her throne. This time, though, there were no distractions – no fading sound of mop hitting desk or chair or even simply a whispered fight between any of their small group of people who knew the secrets.
As they left the classroom, Hakuba's phone went off – yet again – and the blond was instantly engaged in rapt conversation with, of course, what sounded like one Kudo Shinichi.
With a pout and a huff, she went straight home. She had things to do. And people to summon.
---
Police officer Takagi Wataru frowned as he and the others listened back to one Kudo Shinichi's spoken evidence for hat felt like the hundredth time. Miwako Sato, who was beside him, had her arms crossed. Megure-keibu was rubbing at the side of his head, confusion written on his face. Only a few paces away, Shiratori was pinching his nose slightly with a vaguely stressed expression.
At the sound of the door opening – Chiba coming in with the coffee and snacks, Takagi found when he looked around – the tape was stopped. Some time around the point just after Kudo-kun had been explaining to Kuroba-kun how he didn't exactly remember what had happened at a certain point.
Absently, he reached out for a biscuit, still staring at the tape player even though there wasn't any sound coming out of it.
"You guys still going over that thing? How many times has it been already?"
Sato rubbed at her eyes.
"Too many, Chiba. What's more, we still haven't gotten nearly enough evidence from it! I would have thought that if it was his evidence, we would be able to find something, but-!"
"But. . . from what we hear here, Kudo-kun was just as confused as the rest of us when he gave this to us," Takagi finished off for her.
Megure-keibu nodded, latching onto the thought.
"The way he's been acting so far seems to suggest he's telling the truth about it, too, at least, he hasn't done anything since then that goes against what he said. His friends also are coming up with evidence all the time..."
"Evidence that while useful to say that Kudo-kun is innocent, still gets us no closer to the true perpetrator of the case," added Shiratori in a wry tone. "Not to mention that if it hadn't come from respected detectives – children or not – its source would have been highly questionable. At least one of them must have sneaked into the crime scene area or the evidence lab at some point to have those type of results. Not to mention the kind of technological and security level access to do anything with whatever they had."
There was a slightly embarrassed pause. High school children, meitantei or not – the oddity of Kuroba-kun not being an actual recognised tantei being passed over in this case – outdoing the police in their investigations so easily was a minor sore point. The fact that it was a tough case made it a little easier... but not by much. They, as the police, were supposed to be the professionals.
"Well," said Sato, breaking the uneasiness as though it wasn't there. "We should just be glad they are working on it – and that they're not acting the vigilantes and sharing with us. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have gotten that far yet. . ."
She trailed off, as though suddenly coming up with a thought.
"What is it, Sato-san?"
She shook her head, but something was obviously still troubling her.
"Nothing. It's just that, well... it almost seems as though they're simply working with more evidence than we are, when you put it that way. It's probably not true, but-"
"You mean they're withholding something from us?"
"I don't know. I don't think it's that kind of evidence – more like . . . put the tape back on will you, Takagi-kun?"
"Hm? Oh, sure."
He turned the tape back on, and it resumed from where it had left off. Nothing was different from any of the other times they had played it. Listening closer and paying more attention to how the two on the tape interacted and spoke, however, brought a whole new light to the case following from what Sato had said. By the time the tape had finished playing, the officers congregated in the room looked at each other, trading significant glances.
Takagi saw what she had meant. It certainly seemed as though the two knew something to do with the case that they didn't. Some sort of secret between them that those listening in weren't supposed to know.
But why would they do such a thing? Kudo-kun had always seemed to help out the police and trust them previous to this. So why start being losing faith in them now? Whatever the reason was, it shouldn't be so bad as to hide. . . unless it was truly serious.
Yet while the boy had practically kept himself under house arrest for nearly a week now, all of his friends had visited him nearly every day. Takagi himself had seen some of them coming in and out, and had recognised them as responsible people who wouldn't stoop to covering something up for a friend if they were involved in a crime.
So that only begged the question: what exactly was it that they could be hiding. . ?
---
"Kudo-kun, while I understand that you have to get to grips with yourself and get out of a house that, while large compared to most homes is to say the least, stifling you, I do not think that going straight back to the park, the scene of the crime, will help things any. In fact, I might even go as far as to say that it would be detrimental to your health and mental well-being. Not, may I add, one of your best ideas."
The voice on the phone groaned in frustration.
"But what else can I do?"
"Well for one thing, you can go someplace else, associate with other people outside of your immediate circle, and get reacquainted with the daylight world again. You holing yourself up doesn't help any of us. But please also understand that while your assistance on the case would be greatly appreciated, we require you there with all of your mental capacities intact."
"Yeah. But how am I supposed to do that if I can't get within a hundred yards or so of where the case is? Mental capacities includes problem solving. But I know that if I tried to get involved in anything else I'd botch it up right now. My mind can't keep away from. . . well."
Hakuba Saguru sighed, and he leant against a school wall. Right now it was Ekoda's first break period, and he was taking the call away from the main crowds.
"You do know that you don't have to go back to school simply because you are capable of setting foot out of your front door, don't you?" The blond detective couldn't fully understand how the Detective of the East had grown so strangely . . . not incompetent, he wasn't that, but possibly more dependent, almost overnight. Then again, the accumulated stress of certain events piling themselves on top of him would probably do that to even such a strong-willed individual as Kudo Shinichi, he let himself admit. "Just do whatever it is that you would normally do at first. Go out and buy the paper. Do some shopping. You could even just visit Agasa-san and Haibara-san."
He hesitated, and yet again cast a detective's eye around the school grounds, including entrance area and any parts of the streets that he could see. Still no sign.
"Oi, Hakuba. You still there?"
He pinched his nose and sighed.
"Yes..."
"Good. Thought I could still hear you." Saguru suppressed a shiver. Simply knowing was enough most of the time. Having it rubbed in his face – albeit by a slip of the tongue – was not his idea of a good time. "Then you're going to tell me what the matter is with you."
"It's nothing. At least, nothing of great importance, I think. Koizumi-san hasn't come to school today."
". . . And you're saying that this isn't important to have mentioned before?"
"She was perfectly fine the last time that I saw her – that is, as school finished yesterday afternoon at precisely three-forty-five pm. She seemed to be planning something. At least, that is what I believe... not least because that belief was supported this morning when our teacher announced that Koizumi-san' 'parents' had allowed her out of classes today, with an excuse that she often uses."
"With no indication of the men in black?"
"None whatsoever. Unless of course you count Koizumi-san herself while out of school uniform."
There was a short pause during which Saguru wasn't sure – since he himself had been perfectly serious – but he thought that the other detective could possibly be trying to hold back laughter at the very idea or image. Saguru was certain however, that if Koizumi-san had at any point wished to act in any kind of nefarious way, she would have been able to. It was the idea that she actually would that went against his image of her. The girl seemed perfectly happy where she was, and quite possibly for the same reason that he was happy in Ekoda.
"...I see. Any ideas as to where she might be?"
Saguru shrugged.
"She might be at home, but other than that it truly isn't really my business. I haven't previously had any real reason to watch her activities outside of when she brings herself into my, ah, line of sight."
There was a moment's pause while Kudo digested this.
"So what changed?"
The blond froze, uncertain for a moment of how to answer.
"I'm not entirely sure," he said honestly. "But quite probably I would say that it has at least something to do with the current situation. As detectives, our first instinct is to focus on anything outside of the ordinary. The fact that this event coincides with your... problems recently, and the fact that Kuroba is currently staying with you to help you sort them out, are most probably linked."
"Then what do we do?"
Here, he smiled, albeit a somewhat fondly sardonic one.
"We wait, Kudo-kun. I have often found that Koizumi-san is one of the most surprising people I know, barring Kuroba-kun. All that we can do is wait, and see what it was that she was planning once she has already put her plan into action."
The bell rang, and he covered the phone while it did. Once the ringing had ceased in his own normal ears, he lifted the mobile back to his ear.
"The very least that I can say is that unlike Kuroba-kun and some others, her plans are generally outside of the ordinary. But I don't think that it should be too bad."
With that, he cut off, needing to go back to class, and hoping that his words had in fact been true. Because he felt that, for some reason unknown to him, her absence that day was markedly different from those of most previous.
---
In the end, Shinichi had more or less accepted that he had to get out of the place at some point – Hakuba was right about that, at least. He was going to go stir-crazy if he imprisoned himself like this for too much longer – but had been mortified when, upon trying to go out of his own door, he had almost found himself getting suntanned very quickly, very uncomfortably. He had barely gotten away with only a light rash in just about all areas of uncovered, unprotected skin thanks due only to his highly enhanced speed, made even faster by panic and momentary fear. As it was, he had had to down a whole carton to get the tell-tale rashes to go down far enough so as to not draw too much attention.
Kaito had not been pleased, but at the very least Shinichi had been spared a mother hen rant from the thief by a phone call that the magician had felt the need to take in private. Which didn't mean to say, however, that he was completely off the hook.
Since then, he had been on his own.
Strangely enough, he had almost forgotten how large and empty the Kudo house was when there was only one person inside it after less than a week. Of course, before now he had hardly ever been truly alone, and he wasn't now even. But a month or so ago he would have been living in the Mouri detective agency, the same place as Ran, albeit in the same room as her father. He had gotten slowly used to sleeping over at the hakase's every so often, if not for testing out new cures then to have a Shounen Tantei get together for whatever reason. All of those times when he had been places with his adopted new family and friends as Edogawa Conan... he had almost forgotten what it had been like before Conan, living alone without his parents or anyone else around most of the time.
During the time after the Unobo case, he had been too busy dealing with what he had become, with how Ran would be seeing him now, with simply adjusting and trying to stay as human as possible to worry about having people surrounding him. In fact, he had usually been more worried about keeping people away from him than otherwise, until Kuroba had interfered. Then, people had been slowly reintroduced to his way of life, whether he had liked it or not.
The whole incident with Nakamori Aoko had simply reinforced this new life rule. What must have been two weeks or more spent in the same space as a select few people constantly he was if not definitely close friends with, then at the very least able to trust with his secrets by the end of it had unwittingly resulted in close bonds with the other six. . . seven, if you included Aoko, by the end of it all.
And then. . . that had happened. And not long after that, they had split up, each going their own ways once more.
Now. . . he groaned. It had come to this, and he knew that he should have expected something of the sort sooner or later.
It was despicable. He was a detective, not an ordinary member of the general public to faint and scream and get localised selective amnesia over something like that. Ignoring the fact that the simple point of his presence should have deterred whatever crimes might have happened had not worked that one time, he simply should not have been able to contract any sort of amnesia! Not only had his genetics been changed by his state of vampiric nature, but he had an eidetic memory. It shouldn't be possible for him not to remember something. Shouldn't be.
But it evidently was, even if Haibara had examined him as thoroughly as she had been able to and found nothing wrong with him. It was, according to her and anyone else he cared to ask, a purely mental block. Possibly due to emotional stress or something similar.
Which made him want to scream in frustration or completely demolish something useless.
In his spot leaning against one of the library walls, he slid down the wall so that his forehead rested against his knees in an unhealthy mix of despair and dejection. His hands fisted in useless pent up anger at himself.
If it wasn't for him, for him and his weakness, then the case would likely be closed by now. But because he was weak, it was still ongoing, and the murderer was still wandering around freely.
To his sensitive hearing, the opening and closing of his own front door was almost painfully obvious. Kuroba wasn't even trying to be quiet. He didn't move.
When two new yet familiar voices started to talk in his hearing range, their scents new yet familiar also, he could almost bring himself to go and see who it was.
Footsteps rang through the house, bringing with them a strange sort of déjà vu. Coming nearer, coming clearer. He could almost hear what they were saying, now, but couldn't bring himself to listen. Their scents drove him to distraction – how could he recognise them, when he had no name to voice or scent? – but not far enough to look up until their footsteps seemed to be coming his way, straight towards the library.
The door opened and first came Kaito, looking altogether rather unnerved about something, and definitely at a loss. Which was not like Kuroba Kaito. The Kuroba Kaito that he usually knew had a Poker Face so good that he could sometimes fool even a vampire's senses. But it was definitely him.
Then. . . came her.
Shinichi was on his feet in an instant, a move that while it caused Kaito to move back a pace at the unexpected and fluid movement, he did not regret.
"You." His voice was strangely flat, he realised detachedly. "What. . . what are you doing in my home?"
The woman did not move her gaze from him even once.
"I could just as well ask you what you were expecting to achieve down there, Mr. Detective," she said.
Yet that one sentence was all it took to have Shinichi back on the floor with his back to the wall.
It was. There was no maybe about it. It was her. The one who had . . . sired him.
Belatedly, he attempted to control his hyperventilating breathing.
---
Kaito looked between the two, first at Shinichi – uncharacteristically sprawled on the floor, his face in an unusual expression of anger, fear, distaste and, strangely enough, shame. Then, there was the woman all of this was aimed at . . . an ordinary enough looking brunette wearing a deep green t-shirt and a light blue long skirt that reached to her ankles. Nothing too special, really, but Kaito had long ago learned that some of the weirdest people out there hid under masks that shouted out that they were 'nothing too special'. He should know. He was one of them.
Almost without his consent, one of his hands had started to sneak behind his back to where his card gun was continually kept hidden. He hadn't even managed to reach it yet though, when a hand clamped softly down on his shoulder.
"S'alright, kid. Kudo's gonna be fine."
Even though he wasn't facing the person the voice belonged to, Kaito's Poker Face slid expertly into place.
". . . fine. He doesn't look fine right now to me."
The owner of the voice snorted.
"Well of course not. I said he's going to be fine. Not to expect miracles." He twisted his grip on Kaito's arm so that the magician-turned-thief was forced to face him instead of the scene unfolding in front of them. "C'mon, kid. Let's leave 'em to it for a bit."
"Alone?"
"Er, now," the American said somewhat hastily. Shinichi had just started to stand up again, and the look in his eyes wasn't one Kaito wanted to stay in the same room with, even if the guy was his friend and possibly in danger.
Back in the main living room, Kaito let out a long breath as soon as the guy let go of his shoulder in favour of falling back onto Shinichi's couch with his legs outstretched and arms over his head as if he lived there. At least the man had taken his shoes off when he'd first come indoors, though, even if he was still wearing his leather jacket over the worn jeans and white t-shirt ensemble. A bit of black sticking out of his jacket pocket hinted at sunglasses, and black leather gloves poking out from jeans pockets. Kaito put these facts together with the cheap baseball cap he'd seen the man toss onto the coat rack earlier, and came to the inevitable conclusion.
"You and that oba-san back there – you're like Kudo, aren't you?" At the man's pointed look and raised eyebrow, he continued. "Vampires, I mean."
The American vampire cracked one of his eyes closed and half smiled.
"Got it in one, squirt."
Kaito stared, uncertain as to whether he should be amused, annoyed or just downright indignant over the remark, but decided to go with a mixture of all three when the guy started to smirk at his lack of reaction. If Kudo was anything to go by, then this guy could almost definitely tell his emotions using more of his senses than Kaito could counter, thus making Poker Face irrelevant. Throwing away the for-now useless mask, he scowled.
The American laughed shortly, but in a mercurial way not unlike Kaito himself, turned serious after only a moment.
"You know... you really don't have to worry that much, kid. Neither of us are about to eat you, if that's what you were thinking. Heh. . . we were on the other side of Japan a couple of days ago until we heard people were asking after us. When we found out it was about Kudo, we came here like speeding bullets."
"Not speeding silver bullets?"
The guy blinked and leaned forward.
"No... that would hurt. Not much, but it would." He laughed. "Silver's reserved for werewolves. Not vampires."
"Right. So why are you telling me this?"
The vampire looked up at him sharply, then shook his head.
"Look, Mina – that's the one that's having the, ah, conversation with Kudo right now – is the one who sired the guy. You seem to be one of his best friends – despite what you look like, you aren't related, but you are sharing the house. Which also means you're damn close, squirt. Vampires need to trust a person to let them in when they're most vulnerable," he added, giving Kaito a pointed look that made him squirm slightly and almost forget that he'd been called 'squirt' again. "Plus," he said, serious yet again, "you're a donor."
Kaito stilled, not even going so far as tensing, but having the fight-or-flight instinct take a hold of him all the same. Neither he nor Kudo had, so far as he knew, told anyone else about what he had done. No one. No one else had needed to know, or been thought to be able to handle it very well. It hadn't even happened since that morning at the police station, even. Yet this person, this absolute stranger, knew? Just like that?
"How. . . ?"
The vampire sighed and placed a frustrated hand at his forehead.
"You haven't been around vampires much, have you, kid? I suppose not; we did leave kinda early. . . Look. It goes like this. Vampires are predators, right? Please tell me you got that much, at least."
Kaito nodded warily and finally decided to sit down, figuring that his lesson on the vampire race might possibly leave him not wanting to be standing at some point. Possibly in the near future.
The guy sighed in relief, and continued on.
"Well, we are. All started a few thousand years back, though – not that I'd know exactly what happened, I ain't that old – with youkai and all of those types. One of them decided they liked a human, but the hanyou they ended up with came out wrong compared to the others that kept cropping up all over the place... I think you can tell how that worked out."
And Kaito could. He had been told his tales when he was little, and Japanese fairy tales weren't the watered down ones that Europeans and Americans got. With a slight shiver at realising that some of them must have been based on true stories, he thought of the understanding that the couple must have come to that the child was going to be a predator. . . but their later shock and surprise at how that nature had revealed itself. The beginnings of mobs, maybe.
But why not? Vampires were and had always been beings that drank blood, which had usually been synonymous with a person's life, and if not that then at least meant that the vampire had control over that person. . .
"Because of that," the vampire in front of him continued, "Most of the time, we've been able to survive pretty darn' well. For one thing, we don't literally die when we change... might seem like we do sometimes, but we don't. 'Cause of that, there's also the matter of me hearing the main line doesn't always get new members through enforced membership, either – I've heard there's kids in that clan that choose when they age to and whatnot."
Kaito tilted his head.
"Why tell me this? I'm not about to volunteer if that's what you're after." His voice held a muted amount of monotone to it, ready to dig his heels in and not let go to his humanity even if it cost him dearly.
"I wasn't asking you to," the man bit back. "I was tellin' you because it looks like you're the closest friend that brat in there's got, and he needs someone to tell him he ain't a monster and he ain't gonna just drag everyone down! Right now, the state he's in, I somehow doubt Mina's going to be able to get through to him straight away. You, he might listen to."
Kaito's eyes widened. Ever since he had first found out about his father and become the Kaitou Kid, he had mostly kept himself as much to himself as possible, making sure that his chosen path wouldn't hurt any of his precious people, or even anyone unlucky enough to cross paths with him for even an instant. Now, this man was saying that, basically, he was the last stop between Kudo Shinichi and the detective's breaking point.
Before, he had offered to be a fallback guy, someone else to go to. This, however, was not what he'd been expecting.
The American vampire sighed, as if trying to find the right words, and a hand trawled through untidy hair.
"There's. . . a reason. I'm guessing you don't know yet, but there is." He looked Kaito in the eyes, pale blue to blue-violet. "Since vampires are basically descended from youkai, we're. . . kind of like pack animals. We don't, uh, respond well when you seclude us from everyone else. Things usually get messy if you do."
Which sort of fitted with what Kaito had seen of Kudo so far from up close and personal ever since they'd first agreed to be business partners and then friends. He'd always used to be protective of his friends, but now...
"Family with us isn't about blood. At least," he said, starting to look slightly uncomfortable about the subject, "not the same as with most families – you know, genes and all that. It's more like... clans. If we go with Kudo, then there's him, then there's Mina, who sired him – that makes her higher up in the hierarchy than him – then there's also me, Fritz – also sired by Mina, so I suppose that makes me Kudo's half brother, or something. . ."
Kaito snorted at the idea. He didn't know how well Kudo would like that.
"Then there's you, so far."
"Wait a minute, what do you mean, me? And 'so far'?"
The guy – Fritz – sighed again.
"Look, kid. You don't have to like this. I told you vampires came from youkai predators in the first place. Well, they had to have food-"
"So now you're calling me a food source?"
"Ye- no! What I was trying to say was that at first, that's how it had to be. It was an instinct thing, one of those things you aren't always able to control. Kudo bit you – could've even been a cut or anything – what with him being him from what I've seen of him, the fact that you trusted him whatsoever made you a donor." Unthinking, Kaito's right hand went to his left sleeve. Fritz nodded, serious. "When it was first being tested out and developed, I'm guessing it was outta necessity. Nowadays, it's less like that and more to do with clan bonds and ties."
Fritz stopped and allowed Kaito time to think, which he desperately needed. That, and time to stop himself from hyperventilating at the thought of having been like this for so long without having even realised. Nothing had seemed different.
Except for maybe Koizumi watching him even more beadily than usual. That, and feeling a strange twinge a mere half day before Kudo's incident. Koizumi's interest alone – ignoring the fact that the woman Mina had referenced the class witch while asking to come in – had weight enough, now that he knew what he was weighing it against.
"So," he said finally. "What's this supposed to do to a person, then?" The American let out a long sigh of relief. "I assume that it doesn't cause too much of a change, right?"
Fritz nodded. "Right. The only changes are that you're now the proud bearer of an inbuilt Kudo-in-life-threatening-crisis detector. Means you react whenever Mr. Detective over there's in deep doo-doo. Should hardly ever happen."
A hand still over the place where the scar was, Kaito looked over in the direction of where Fritz had glanced at.
"It already has."
For the first time since he had opened the door to them, the American vampire's face darkened noticeably as he gripped the arm of the couch.
"I noticed," was all he said in a dangerous voice, before going back to the mostly carefree personality that Kaito was more familiar with. "A good thing for you, Kudo should have the same thing but backwards. Same thing with anyone who becomes a donor, really. Doesn't matter who or how long, either. Not to mention it kind of goes without saying he sorta adopts your nakama." He laughed, like he was thinking of or remembering something good. "Or that might just be my experiences so far."
Kaito nodded absently, only half taking in what was said and storing it for later usage. The better part of his mind was occupied with what the guy had told him about Kudo and life-threatening situations. But if it were true – and at this stage, he wasn't saying that it wasn't – then it had already happened for him. . . yet so far as he knew, Kudo had been perfectly safe and at school the same as him when his scar, or mark, had ached. So it couldn't have been the thing that had caused Kudo to get like this. . .
But if it wasn't that, then what had it been?
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AN: I really, really need to know this – how many people hate me for putting Original Characters in semi-lead but not instrumental roles? How many people simply like them, and want to know more about them? Just so's you all know, Mina and Fritz are the same people who appeared briefly in chapter two (and then promptly left). They are nominally important, but really just so that we – and in doing so, the characters in the story – know more about vampires in this universe I've created, and the way they work. Not to mention, the reason why Kaito is NOT a vampire. Nor is he changing into one. I did tell some of you that something was happening, though – this is what it was.
The main cast, however, WILL remain predominantly canon characters just like last time. Mina, Fritz, Unobo and the guy who died in one sentence are the only ones that I created. Mine, I tell you. Mine.